WIN ANOTHER FREE BOOK!
We are doing one more promotional book giveaway. Last week’s winners of
Misinterpreting Scripture were Clive of Chicago, who learned of @HonorShame on Twitter from Mike in Long Beach.
This week’s book is
Shame Interrupted: How God Lifts the Pain of Worthlessness and Rejection. This work from
CCEF pastorally traces the theme of salvation from shame throughout Scripture. How do you enter to win? Like last week, you get one ‘ticket’ in the pot for:
- RECOMMEND this to others (via email, reblog, message, post on Facebook, etc.). If the winning person learned of HonorShame.com through you, you also win the book! Multiply your chances of winning.
Who else do you know ministers in an honor-shame culture? If they win, you win too!! ________________________________________________________________________
‘HONORIFICATION’: A CONTEXTUAL MISSIOLOGY FOR HONOR-SHAME CONTEXTS
The missiological dilemma, simply stated, is this:
- Most nations in the world, especially the unreached, are structured around honor and shame
- and honor and shame dynamics play a central role in biblical theology,
- yet, these two realities bear minimal impact in contemporary missiology.
If shame is a fundamental human problem and God is on mission to replace shame with honor, then
how can God’s people join in God’s mission of addressing shame and blessing honor among the nations? The solution, I propose, is “honorification” – a missiological approach to Christian witness that addresses the pivotal Majority World value of honor by mediating, in word and deed, God’s gracious honor to humanity. A ministry of honorification contextually bears witness to God’s shame-removing, honor-restoring salvation to the world in all mission activities. There are no answers here, but four sets of questions setting the agenda for the development of an HonorShame-based missiology. Hopefully these questions put the topic on your radar as well.
CULTURE – Before we can effectively bless the nations with honor, we must emically (from their perspective) understand the cultural nuances of honor and shame. How does it shape people’s identity, relationships, and behavior? How is HS tied to patronage, purity, communication style, gender roles, etc? Fortunately, post-WWII anthropologists have examined honor and shame (Benedict, Pitt-Rivers, Peristiany), but most research is from the Mediterranean or East Asian countries.
SCRIPTURE – Once we understand the human problem, we assess the divine solution. How is God working to remove shame and restore honor? How do honor-shame values expand our theological concepts of God, sin, salvation, ethics, etc. Though biblical scholars (Neyrey, DeSilva, Laniak, etc.) help us understand the biblical texts better, theologians are just beginning to integrate their insights.
SPIRITUAL – Before we minister God’s honor, in word and deed, to the nations we must first understand the depths of our own shame and heights of God’s gracious honor for our own spiritual lives. The life transformed by Christ is the greatest ministry tool for discipling the nations. The message “God’s honor removes shame” is not for ‘them,’ but also for you and me. How can our identity/worth/face/reputation be firmly rooted in God? Pastors, counselors and psychologists can help in this area.
MINISTRY– How can we incarnationally bless the nations with God’s honor? How can we effectively
build relationships, share the gospel, disciple believers,
train leaders, or structure development projects in the key of honor and shame? As we do this, the nations will find honor in Christ and God will be further glorified.
Because of global imperative for a contexual missiological for honor-shame cultures, that is the broader vision which HonorShame.com aims to serve.
If you know who may be interested in those questions, let them know about the free book!!
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